New coronavirus: Not SARS

sciencegirl

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Wednesday September 26, 2012 · 1:47 PM PDT

2012/09/26 · 13:47

Some of you may have heard about a new coronavirus isolated from humans sick with severe respiratory symptoms. I did a search and found that it was mentioned in the overnight news digest from Sept. 24, but from what I could find it has not been discussed at length on the site. Quite a bit of information has been released in the press, so I thought since this is in my general field of study, I might put together a quick diary about what is known about the virus.

Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that infect birds and mammals. Known human coronaviruses cause about a third of the upper respiratory infections ("colds") in humans. These infections are generally self-limiting, although occasionally they can become more severe, particularly in younger, older, or immunocompromised individuals. Coronaviruses are spread via contact with secretions or aerosol droplets from infected individuals.

What is known about the new coronavirus as of today is below the squiggly.

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